


"I don't love you anymore."

by goth_on_ham



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Angst, Future Fic, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-03-08
Packaged: 2018-09-30 18:59:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10169624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goth_on_ham/pseuds/goth_on_ham
Summary: A short fic where Ed falls for Oswald, but after Oswald has fallen out of love with him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A prompt fill that I felt like posting separately from my drabble collections. It's not happy!

It had taken time, but gradually the bitterness and anger ebbed away and Oswald and Ed became friends again. 

They had too much history to stay away from each other for long, and it turned out, it was far easier to keep resenting someone when you didn’t see them. When you didn’t see the way they smiled, when you didn’t see all their familiar little idiosyncrasies up close, when you didn’t smell their cologne and didn’t see the way the light caught their eyes, highlighting the light parts and making them shine. 

One afternoon, over tea in the Iceberg Lounge, Ed reached out and touched the back of Oswald’s hand. He rubbed his thumb over his knuckles, the action unmistakably tender and affectionate. What had prompted it at that exact moment? Even Ed wasn’t sure. Oswald hadn’t been talking about anything that had particularly spurred it on, but the urge to do it had been irresistible. 

He didn’t know what he’d been expecting Oswald to do, but he hadn’t expected him to draw his hand back, slipping it out of Ed’s reach and resting it on his lap.

“I’m sorry.” He said, suddenly feeling foolish. It was a sensation he despised. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose to give his hand something to do, and to hide the hurt on his face.

“It’s fine.” Oswald replied, but he said it awkwardly. Like it wasn’t really ‘fine’. 

There was an uncomfortable silence that hung in the air for several seconds. Oswald finished his tea, drinking the remainder of the milky brown liquid faster than he might have if Ed hadn’t touched him. He glanced at a silver pocket watch that was attached to his waistcoat and made some remark about how he should really get on with his work. 

Ed barely heard him.

Oswald cleared his throat slightly. Ed looked up at Oswald. He was still sitting and Oswald was standing. He was ushering him out. Ed smiled a tight, pained smile and nodded. “Of course. I’ll see you soon, Oswald.”

He stood up, making a show of straightening the front of his suit jacket (again, mostly just to give his hands something to do), but when he looked up Oswald had already turned around and was leaving for one of the backrooms. 

“Wait!”

Ed cringed as soon as that had left his lips. He didn’t have a plan for what he was going to say next. He should have just let Oswald leave.

“Edward…” Oswald began, but Ed advanced on him, cut him off with a hand on the side of his face. Words didn’t suffice. Actions were all he could rely on now.

He kissed him. He kissed him until Oswald pushed him away. 

“I’m sorry,” He pleaded, moving back when Oswald urged him to, but still reaching out for him. Still hoping that they might resume what had once nearly started between them before he had cut it short with a bullet. 

Oswald’s eyes shone bright, but it wasn’t the light catching them that made them do it, it was the tears that had collected in them. “Ed, I don’t love you anymore.” 

“You don’t mean that.” Ed said that out of hope rather than certainty.

“I do.” Oswald wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket. “Please go. Perhaps it was a mistake for us to meet alone. Some things should remain in the past.”

Ed stopped reaching out for him, let his hands fall to his sides. No more words of protest found their way to his lips, no matter how much he wanted them to. Instead he simply said, “Of course. Goodbye, Oswald.”


End file.
